From the archive: Lord Meston's Address in 1934

I visited the GA Archives in Solly Street earlier this week and made some good discoveries.

One of the things I discovered was from Lord James Scorgie Meston, who was President in 1934.

Lord Meston's Address to a GA group in Glasgow was published in the Scottish Educational Journal in 1934.

Here is the address, in two pages.

There are a few interesting sections - this one shows how what might be seen as powerful knowledge dates...

What was the question of Memel? 

I had to look it up and discovered a link with the League of Nations - another institution that the GA has close links with.

IGU - CGE

The IGU (International Geographical Union) will have their 100th conference next year in Paris.

This year's IGU-CGE conference was held last week in Prague.

The keynote speakers and several of the other sessions involved people who I have been privileged to work with over the years on ERASMUS+ funded projects including Michael Solem and the third phase of GeoCapabilities is well represented too.

On the IGU site, there is history of the IGU, which was originally co-written by Norman Graves, former GA President and added to by other people. (Downloadable as PDF or Word document)

He talks about the original seminars organised with the UN, which included Neville Scarfe from the UCL IoE.

In 1950, UNESCO organized their first seminar on the teaching of geography in Montreal. This seminar was chaired by Neville Scarfe (1908-1985), who at that time was Head of the Geography Department at the University of London Institute of Education. The result of this seminar was UNESCO’s A Handbook of Suggestions on the Teaching of Geography (Unesco, 1951) mainly drafted by Neville Scarfe.

Following the book, the next stages of the development drew in L Dudley Stamp. This followed the early UK Land User Survey which has appeared on the blog before.

Neville Scarfe reported his association with L. Dudley Stamp, a British geographer at the London School of Economics. Scarfe, a British geography teacher, became senior lecturer at the London Institute of Education in 1935. He was a professional acquaintance of Stamp’s since the London geographers were, in Scarfe’s words, a friendly and sociable group. Both were members of the Royal Geographical Society, which was a further reason for contact. It is likely that Stamp and Scarfe collaborated during the 1930s and 1940s when Stamp organized the school children of the United Kingdom to map the land use near their schools. Scarfe had a network of many geography teachers and students who participated in the mapping. Stamp and Scarfe both participated in the first post war IGU conference in Lisbon, Portugal in 1949, where geographical education and international cooperation were topics being addressed with considerable interest. It was during the Lisbon Congress that the IGU appointed a Committee on the Teaching of Geography under the chairmanship of Neville Scarfe.

The history also talks about the publication of the 1965 UNESCO New Source Book for Geography Teaching.

This can be borrowed from the Internet Archive website.

It features several chapters by Norman Graves on the teaching of geography which make interesting reading, and also a chapter by Tom W Brown who was a teacher at the King's School, Gloucester on the organisation of the geography classroom.

1949: Sir Harry Alexander Fanshawe Lindsay KCIE CBE

Updated October 2023

Sir Harry Lindsay was a Colonial administrator, who was connected with India, and worked to develop aspects of the Commonwealth, which grew from the end of Empire.

He was another St. Paul's Old Boy and was also educated at Oxford University, as were many previous Presidents.

A Wikipedia article provided the following information, under CC license:

In 1910 Lindsay became Under-Secretary to the government of Bengal. He moved to the Commerce and Industry Department of the Government of India in 1912.

In 1916 he was Director-General of Commercial Intelligence in Calcutta and in 1922 Secretary to the Government of India, Commerce Dept. In 1923 he became Government of India Trade Commissioner in London. 

In 1919, he was knighted:

CENTRAL CHANCERY OF THE ORDERS OF KNIGHTHOOD. St. James's Palace, S.W. 

3rd June, 1919. 

The KING has been graciously pleased, on the occasion of His Majesty's Birthday, to make the following promotions in, and appointments to, the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire: — 'To be Knight Commanders of the Civil Division, of the said Most Excellent Order.

Harry Alexander Fanshawe Lindsay, Esq., Indian Civil Service, Director-General of Commercial Intelligence in India.

In 1923 he was delegate for India to the Economic Committee of the League of Nations. In 1934 he was appointed Director of the Imperial Institute, a post in which he remained until 1953.

He was GA President during this time.

Image credit: National Portrait Gallery

Described here:


Lindsay was Chairman of the Council of the Royal Society of Arts, editing the publication British Commonwealth Objectives in 1946. 

He was President of the Imperial Institute in the 1940s as well.

A vintage photograph from the time.

Lindsay was also president of the Royal Geographical Society (yet another President to have served with both organisations), and vice-president of the Royal Commonwealth Society.

Lindsay's presidential address was on 'Geography and the Museum'.

In it, he talked about the role that geography might play in the development of museums, even the one at the RGS, which he mentions at the start of his address.

There is a return here to the contested notions of geography as a science, which was a debate had throughout the early 20th Century, and aspects of this are still talked about now.

An interest in museums also connects him other former GA President, who were connected with museums:
1925 - John Linton Myres, who was linked with the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, and
1929 - Sir Henry Lyons, who was a director of the Science Museum

He died on 2 March 1963, in Oxfordshire, England, United Kingdom, at the age of 81.

I wasn't able to find much about what he did while GA President unfortunately.

References

Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Lindsay - a brief entry, which doesn't say anything about his Geographical career - Edited to add his GA Presidency as always.

Lindsay, Harry. “GEOGRAPHY AND THE MUSEUM: ADDRESS TO THE GEOGRAPHICAL ASSOCIATION.” Geography, vol. 35, no. 1, 1950, pp. 1–9. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40564519.

Portrait at NPG: https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp79885/sir-harry-alexander-fanshawe-lindsay

https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/written-answers/1943/mar/31/colonial-products-research-council

Mentioned in: https://journals.le.ac.uk/ojs1/index.php/mas/article/viewFile/232/245

Lindsay, Harry. “CULTURAL RELATIONS WITHIN THE BRITISH COMMONWEALTH.” Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, vol. 96, no. 4756, 1947, pp. 6–18. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41364360.


Here's an image of Sir Harry Lindsay welcoming the Queen to an event at the Royal Society of Arts mentioned in the article above - when he served as President of the RSA.

Image of Lindsay from NPG under Creative Commons

Sir Harry Alexander Fanshawe Lindsay
by Walter Stoneman
bromide print, March 1943
NPG x165080© National Portrait Gallery, London

As always, I would be happy to hear from anyone who has further details on this President's particular contributions to the work of the GA. I have very little to go on for this entry which is one of the briefest.

You can buy a greetings card with his image on from the NPG if you so desire...

https://npgshop.org.uk/products/sir-harry-alexander-fanshawe-lindsay-npg-x165080-card

1934: Rt. Hon Lord James Scorgie Meston

Last updated August 2023

When I started this blog post, I couldn't find a great deal about Lord Meston's geographical 'credentials', so had to do a little more digging than usual. 

We are moving into a period when the Presidents don't have Wikipedia pages which are as detailed in all cases as some of the earlier, or slightly later ones.

I then came across a piece on the RSGS website, which gave me a way in to finding out more.

Lord Meston was involved with Geography for many years it seems, particularly in Scotland, although there was still little about his time at the GA.

On 24th October 1934, the Royal Scottish Geographical Society celebrated its Golden Jubilee. The newspapers were full of the arrival of the Duke and Duchess of York, who were visiting the Society as representatives of its Patron, King George V.
In the Usher Hall in Edinburgh, RSGS members joined delegates from other scientific and geographical societies at an afternoon reception for 2,000 guests. This was the opening session of the Society’s Edinburgh branch, and the Duke of York had agreed to present some awards. Among the recipients were Isobel Wylie Hutchison, who was awarded the Mungo Park Medal for her explorations in the Arctic, and Lord Meston of Agra and Dunnottar, who received the Scottish Geographical Medal “for distinguished services to geography over a period of many years.” 

After the ceremony, Lord Meston, a statesman whose family hailed from Aberdeen, addressed the company on the subject of India.

Source: https://rsgs.org/the-kings-speech/

His interests were wide, and he was also the President of the Royal Statistical Society.
There was a strong connection with the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, which continued.

He received the Scottish Geographical Medal from the Royal Scottish Geographical Society in 1934. This led me to a useful biography, and as an RSGS medal winner myself gave me a connection with Scorgie Meston.

Sir James Scorgie Meston. 1st Baron Meston KCSI, was a prominent British civil servant, financial expert and businessman. He served as Lieutenant-Governor of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh from 1912 to 1918. He passed the Indian civil service examination in 1883 and was posted to the North-Western Provinces and Oudh in 1885 (which later became the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh), where he was director of land records between 1897 and 1899 and financial secretary to the government between 1899 and 1903. From 1905 to 1906 he briefly left India to act as an adviser to the Cape Colony and Transvaal governments in South Africa.

After his return to India in 1906, Meston was secretary to the finance department of the government of India until 1912, when he was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. He remained in this position until 1918, when he became finance member of the Viceroy of India's executive council. In 1917, along with Sir Satyendra Prasanno Sinha and Maharaja Ganga Singh, he assisted the Secretary of State for India in representing India in the Imperial War Cabinet and Conference.
After the war, Meston, along with Lionel Curtis, was the main designer of the Institute of International Affairs, and served as chairman of its first governing body from 1920 to 1926, of its publications committee and of the editorial board of International Affairs. Apart from this, Meston was also vice-chairman of the Supervisory Commission of the League of Nations. He sat on the Liberal benches in the House of Lords and served as President of the Liberal Party organization. He was also involved in business and served as chairman and as a board member of several companies.

Meston was made a CSI in 1908 and a KCSI in 1911 and in 1919 he was further honoured when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Meston, of Agra in the Indian Empire and Dunottar in the County of Kincardine.
In 1935, he gave his Presidential Address, which was on 'The Geography of an Indian Village.' He had spent a considerable time involved in the administration of India.


In the Address, he described his travels in India, from the perspective of someone who had lived there for a long period.
He also suggested that, as Fairgrieve explained the following year, the object of the Association was to spread interest in the population about the subject through supporting teachers.
I could find little else about his time working for the GA, but then came across an obituary. See the Update.

Image from the National Portrait Gallery.
Image - shared under CC license
James Scorgie Meston, 1st Baron Meston
by Bassano Ltd
whole-plate glass negative, 9 October 1923
NPG x122702
© National Portrait Gallery, London
A plaque with his name can be seen at Aberdeen University.

References
https://rsgs.org/the-kings-speech - link to medal ceremony at the RSGS

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Meston,_1st_Baron_Meston - more details once I'd established the correct Lord Meston. Added his GA Presidency to the page.

“THE GEOGRAPHY OF AN INDIAN VILLAGE. ADDRESS TO THE GEOGRAPHICAL ASSOCIATION, By the Rt. Hon. BARON MESTON OF AGRA AND DUNOTTAR President, 1934-35.” Geography, vol. 20, no. 1, 1935, pp. 1–12. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40559216.

Obituary: G. F. S. “Lord Meston 1865-1943.” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, vol. 106, no. 3, 1943, pp. 294–296. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2979981.
I amended this entry to add his GA Presidential role and RSGS Medal award.

Some papers: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F42492

https://saalg.blogspot.com/2018/04/meston-formation-of-civil-servant.html

If anyone has further information on this President and his time at the GA please get in touch. This is quite a slight entry compared with some of the others.

Update - late September

“LORD MESTON.” Geography, vol. 28, no. 4, 1943, pp. 120–120. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40562330

Updated November 2020

Built in 1913 by the Raja of Sahaspur Bilari, this European mansion served as a guest house for the erstwhile Governor of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, Sir James Scorgie Meston. Also home to Italian officers captured by the British Army during WWII. pic.twitter.com/ir1a14y4BP

— The Unhotel Company (@unhotelier) March 29, 2018

Sir James Scorgie Meston succeeded Sir John Hewett as the Lieutenant Gov. of the United Provinces of Agra & Oudh in 1912. He was looked upon as progressive and was very keen on public constructive works.

This may not have been the view of those in the United Provinces at the time of course.

Updated August 2021

James Scorgie Meston, 1st Baron Meston

by Bassano Ltd
whole-plate glass negative, 9 October 1923
NPG x122705

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Updated August 2021

Built in 1913 by the Raja of Sahaspur Bilari, this European mansion served as a guest house for the erstwhile Governor of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, Sir James Scorgie Meston. Also home to Italian officers captured by the British Army during WWII. pic.twitter.com/ir1a14y4BP

— The Unhotel® Company (@unhotelier) March 29, 2018

Updated August 2022

I came across this document with his Presidential Address in 1934 from the Scottish Educational Journal. It has been posted separately.

Updated August 2023

Wikipedia page

An image of his memorial is here, which provides further personal details.

He was appointed Secretary to the Finance Department, the Government of India in 1906 and, while holding that position was a temporary Finance Member of the Governor-General's Council and a member of the Imperial Legislative Council. Awarded the C.S.I. in 1908, he was knighted in 1911.
In 1912, he was made Lieut-Governor of the United Provinces and was in that post when the last World War began.
His wide knowledge of conditions in India led to his being summoned to London in 1917 and made representative for India in the Imperial War Cabinet.

1922: Right Hon. Lord Robert Cecil PC, KC, MP

Updated April 2021

One hundred years before 2022, when I will be in my Presidential year, the President of the GA had rather more letters after his name, and titles before it than I have. There's time yet though....

Lord Robert Cecil was an MP and held other roles of importance in his long career. He had an extraordinary, and long, life with a huge variety of contributions to different parts of society.

Like Gilbert Murray before him, he was linked with the work of the League of Nations. 
This association was to end with him being awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace.

In 1920, a message that Lord Robert Cecil had sent to the GA regarding the establishment of the League of Nations was included in 'The Geographical Teacher'. This perhaps brought him to the attention of the Association, and he was earmarked for a future role.

He was known as 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood. He was born in London, son of the 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, who had been Prime Minister three times, so from a background of political involvement and high standing within London society. He attended Eton College. 
He studied Law at University College, Oxford and was then called to the Inner Temple.

In 1906, he became the Conservative MP for Marylebone East, serving for 4 years, before unsuccessfully contesting the seats at Blackburn and Wisbech. 

He later served as Independent Conservative MP for Hitchin between 1911 and 1923, so he was an MP when he was the President of the GA. He served as a Government minister during the First World War, as he was 50 and too old for Military service. He was also a Government minister later on in his career. He had earlier been vocal in seeking peace and avoiding the conflict that was to come.
He was apparently very concerned about the increasing social problems and public dangers associated with growing car ownership, and became the first President of the Pedestrians Association in 1929.

This is still in existence and is now known as Living Streets. The UK Charity for Everyday Walking. It is celebrating its 90th birthday this year.

He had earlier drawn the GA members attention to the role of the League of Nations, in 1921, as mentioned before:



He was announced as President in this piece from 'The Geographical Teacher' in 1921

Source: “Editorial.” The Geographical Teacher, vol. 11, no. 3, 1921, pp. 131–135. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40555625. Accessed 11 Apr. 2021.

His Presidential Address was, unsurprisingly called "Geography and Peace", and was delivered at Birkbeck College on January 5th, 1922.

He started by saying "Geography, when I was young, was of all the subjects of my education the least inspired and the least inspiring", which I'm sure got the room on his side, especially when he continued to talk about its "devastating dullness".

However, "nowadays, Geography is a very different thing (he went on to say). He referred to the conflict that had recently ended, and areas such as Poland, Silesia and Albania. He described the need for the League of Nations.

"Peace is not only the first of British interests, it is the greatest interest of all other countries as well."

Following his earlier work, the 1930s were taken up with efforts to develop the League's work to secure peace in Europe.
The Wikipedia entry provides a lot of details on his efforts at appeasement, following Hitler becoming the Chancellor of Germany. These discussions occupied him for another decade, but not without reward.

In 1937, Cecil was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
This is one of the most remarkable of the 'hidden' stories of past GA Presidents. 
A Nobel Prize has to be the pinnacle of achievement for a life lived in the service of others.

Cecil lived to see the birth of the United Nations.

Following his long public service, he served for many years in the House of Lords. 
Hansard can be searched to find the contributions he made to debates.

Lord Home paid tribute to him in the House of Commons a few days after his death.

He was one of the first people, perhaps, in the modern world...to foresee the absolute need for nations to meet round the table in discussion of their national affairs in the interests of peace. He was one of the architects of the League of Nations. And your Lordships will recall the unflagging enthusiasm with which he pursued the cause of peace wherever he went. His vision of a world disarmed, where conciliation would hold the day, was time and again disappointed...all since have been convinced of the rightness of his ideal, although the world has not proved itself yet great enough to match his great conception. In the United Nations, which was the successor of the League of Nations, there is many a living monument to Lord Cecil. Many of the committees which do great work in the international field were the result of his conception and are daily drawing people closer and closer together in interdependence. I, myself, because my father was very keen and with him did much in the League of Nations field, remember Lord Robert Cecil coming to stay at home; and many a time at dinner, when I was a comparatively young man, I would watch him, with his long figure, slide more and more under the table, until only the distinguished head was left above his plate, and he would tell us of all his plans for the future peace of the world. Ever since then I have felt that so long as he was alive there was one among us who, however bitter the strife and however blind the world, never despaired of finding peace in our time

He left no heirs sadly, and his Viscountcy became extinct.

References


Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cecil,_1st_Viscount_Cecil_of_Chelwood - also the source of the image. This is a detailed and lengthy entry.

I edited the Wikipedia article to add the fact that he had served as the President of the GA, as I have done with each President.

The Nobel Peace Prize 1937. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Media AB 2019. Sun. 16 Jun 2019

Citation:

The British politician, diplomat and peace activist Lord Robert Cecil came of an aristocratic family from which had sprung as many as four prime ministers. After reading law at Oxford, he worked for a number of years as a lawyer, before being elected to Parliament in 1906 as a Conservative.

During World War I he was Minister of Blockade, and at the Versailles peace conference he played a leading part in the formulation of the rules of the League of Nations. In 1919 he participated in the founding of the League of Nations Union (LNU), which in the inter-war years became Britain's most important extra-parliamentary pressure group in the field of foreign policy.

In 1937 Lord Cecil spearheaded a nationwide signature campaign demanding that the League of Nations adopt economic and military penal sanctions against violators of the peace. He was also among the leaders of the International Peace Campaign (IPC), which worked for disarmament and collective security through the League of Nations.

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1937/summary

Search Hansard for his speeches here:
e.g.
https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1958/nov/26/the-late-viscount-cecil-of-chelwood has the 1958 speeches remembering his involvement

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1937/chelwood/facts/

As always, if anyone has further information relating to this President, please get in touch.